Google and Facebook are being sued for attempting to collude in order to gain an advantage in the ad market. Because of their sheer reach and user base, the tech behemoths already dominate the space. A lawsuit has been filed in the United States, the company's home country. The lawsuit claims that the CEOs of Alphabet and Facebook (now Meta) were aware of the deal. It even claims that Google CEO Sundar Pichai gave his approval to the deal.
According to the Associated Press, the lawsuit was filed in December of last year, but new unredacted documents have surfaced since then. According to the lawsuit, Mark Zukerberg was seen discussing the deal with other Facebook executives in an email thread. The lawsuit also claims that Sundar Pichai personally signed off on the deal.
The lawsuit alleges that Facebook's chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said "strategically a big deal" in the same mail thread that also included Zuckerberg. Once both parties agreed to the terms of the deal, the team responsible sent a mail directly to Zuckerberg, according to the lawsuit.
What is the deal about?
The deal was reportedly a way for Google to counter header bidding. Publishers look for header bid positions to earn more money from ads on their websites. Facebook, a leading company in the ad sector, has made this feature available to its users. The deal wanted Facebook to stop providing posts to its publishers and get "information, speed and other benefits" from Google in return.
According to Google (via AP), the lawsuit is "full of inaccuracies and lacks legal merit."
Meta spokesman Chris Sgro said Friday that the company's ad bidding agreement with Google and similar agreements with other bidding platforms "helped increase competition for ad placements."
“These business relationships enable Meta to deliver more value to advertisers while giving publishers fair compensation, resulting in better outcomes for everyone,” Sgro said.
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